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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

I think last night, you were driving circles around me.

I was at the Powerstation on Saturday for Unknown Pleasures 30th Anniversary with Peter Hook & friends. Amazing. I was a bit scared it would be a vanity project for Hooky, after his falling out with the other New Order folk, maybe he was trying to prove a point. But he did Ian Curtis so much justice - just played it and sang it as Ian would have done in 1979, with so much passion and energy.

Hearing No Love Lost took me back to being 15 (and sad!)I got into them through a convoluted route via The Smiths and New Order, and Closer was pretty much on repeat play for a year. But I remember it just made me feel less alone at the time. Not many songwriters really feel the pain and torment that they write about. But Joy Division was never just about the depressed; the music was so alive and man, that bass! It cuts through you and you can't help but move your feet.

When the final song, obviously Love Will Tear us Apart - kicked in, my eyes welled up at the sheer beauty of it all (I do this a lot nowadays) and even those irritating party crashing twats behind me couldn't ruin the brilliance.

I wish I'd gone to see Hooky DJ at Tabac afterwards, but also am glad I did not. I always feel that invisible line between famous and ordinary and besides I wanted to remember that gig as though it was 1979, and that it was Ian Curtis stood there (even though the voice wasn't quite the same, and he kept doing that stadium-punching-air-coy-frontman thing) and Hooky was banging on his bass strung low, as Barney stands to the side and Steven hits the drums vigorously.

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